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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 7945011" data-attributes="member: 5142">OSR games do not necessarily appeal to me. Some, yes, but not all. I learn a lot from reading through OSR games. IMHO, OSR typically fall into two major camps: (1) retroclones and (2) new-wave OSR. This last camp is typically more interested in the game design philosophy of OSR and using that to derive new games rather than simply retro-cloning and tweaking older games. So when talking about what qualities an OSR game would have, we need to take both camps into account.Player Skill > Character Skill: One mantra of the OSR community is that the answer to a given problem in the game isn't on your character sheet. OSR values what a player can do through creative problem-solving more than what a character can do based on the abilities the game gives them. Here we may also include a few other things that may encourage or cultivate that experience:* High Lethality & Disregard for Encounter Balance: Both of these elements are meant to put caution into how players approach the game, particularly when it comes to combat. The idea being that players cannot go into every combat thinking that it is designed to be balanced in their favor. The solution is not necessarily "combat," and the incentives are not necessarily on killing the monster to get its gold (i.e., XP).Non-Linearity: This is a HUGE part of OSR, and it's one reason why Dragonlance is often a sticking point between OSR and a lot of contemporary D&D, particularly D&D and Pathfinder style adventures. You can almost think of OSR and Indie Story games as two diverging responses to the same "problem": GM as author. (My interest in OSR involves the overlap and cross-pollination of these two diverging responses.) OSR actively resists linear adventures, railroading, and pre-written plots. OSR does this in multiple ways.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Open World Sandbox Play: let the players venture off the rails prepared</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Non-Linear Dungeons: multiple entrances and exits so the dungeon is not a cultivated railroad experience</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Random Tables: how do you prevent the GM from being an author? Make them roll encounters, loot, environments, and whatever else using charts and tables.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is also an anti-fudging element because fudging goes against "play to see what happens" and is regarded as a slippery slope towards GM-authorship of outcomes.</li> </ul>Sparse Rules: A lot of OSR games do not bother creating rules for everything nor are they interested in that. So there is an active awareness that rules will not cover everything requiring a "rulings not rules" approach even more so than 5e D&D adopts.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Light Character Creation: This is probably also a more modern trend, lighter character creation so that players can more quickly and easily jump into the action.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Light Character Options: a non-reliance on feats, skills, and a smorgasbord of character abilities. This also goes hand-in-hand with rewarding player creativity. The player does not necessarily need an explicit ability that gives them permission.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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